scholarly journals Technical Performance Overview of Bio-Based Insulation Materials Compared to Expanded Polystyrene

Buildings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Cassandra Lafond ◽  
Pierre Blanchet

The energy efficiency of buildings is well documented. However, to improve standards of energy efficiency, the embodied energy of materials included in the envelope is also increasing. Natural fibers like wood and hemp are used to make low environmental impact insulation products. Technical characterizations of five bio-based materials are described and compared to a common, traditional, synthetic-based insulation material, i.e., expanded polystyrene. The study tests the thermal conductivity and the vapor transmission performance, as well as the combustibility of the material. Achieving densities below 60 kg/m3, wood and hemp batt insulation products show thermal conductivity in the same range as expanded polystyrene (0.036 kW/mK). The vapor permeability depends on the geometry of the internal structure of the material. With long fibers are intertwined with interstices, vapor can diffuse and flow through the natural insulation up to three times more than with cellular synthetic (polymer) -based insulation. Having a short ignition times, natural insulation materials are highly combustible. On the other hand, they release a significantly lower amount of smoke and heat during combustion, making them safer than the expanded polystyrene. The behavior of a bio-based building envelopes needs to be assessed to understand the hygrothermal characteristics of these nontraditional materials which are currently being used in building systems.

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
S.H. Ibrahim ◽  
Sia W.K. ◽  
A. Baharun ◽  
M.N.M. Nawi ◽  
R. Affandi

 Energy consumption for residential use in Malaysia is keep increasing yearly in order to maintain the internal thermal comfort of the building. Roof insulation material plays a vital role in improving the thermal comforts of the building while reduce the cooling load of the building. Oil palm industry in Malaysia had grown aggressively over the past few decades. Tons of oil palm waste had produced during the process such as empty fruit bunch fiber. Another waste material that available and easy to obtain is paper. Paper is a valuable material that can be recycled. Waste paper comes from different sources such as newspaper, office and printing papers. This study will take advantage of the available resources which could contribute to reduce the environment impact. The aim of this study is to investigate the thermal performance of roof insulation materials using mixture of oil palm fiber and paper pulp with different ratio and thickness. This study found that the thermal performance of the paper pulp is slightly better compare to the oil palm fiber. Thermal conductivity of the particle board reduces around 4.1% by adding the 10% of paper pulp into the total density of the particle board. By adding 75% of paper pulp, the thermal conductivity of the particle board could be reduced to 24.6% compare to the oil palm fiber board under the similar condition. Therefore, from this study, it could be concluded that paper pulp has high potential to be used as a building insulation material.


2011 ◽  
Vol 148-149 ◽  
pp. 116-120
Author(s):  
Jin Lian Qiu ◽  
Zhao Feng Chen ◽  
Jie Ming Zhou ◽  
Jian Wang ◽  
Bin Bin Li ◽  
...  

Due to extremely low thermal conductivity, high modulus, high toughness, light weight and non-combustible property, ultrafine glass wool can be widely used as glass fiber reinforcements in composites, thermal insulation materials, acoustic insulation materials, engineering materials, construction, infrastructure and environmental protection projects and so on. In particular, as a insulation material, glass wool exhibits unique advantages. The predominant process of glass wool is centrifugal blowing process. This paper describes a study of the relationship between the diameter of ultrafine glass fiber and thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of ultrafine glass wool decreases with the decrease of average diameter.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Á. Lakatos ◽  
I. Deák ◽  
U. Berardi

The development of high performance insulating materials incorporating nanotechnologies has enabled considerable decrease in the effective thermal conductivity. Besides the use of conventional insulating materials, such as mineral fibers, the adoption of new nano-technological materials such as aerogel, vacuum insulation panels, graphite expanded polystyrene, is growing. In order to reduce the thermal conductivity of polystyrene insulation materials, during the manufacturing, nano/micro-sized graphite particles are added to the melt of the polystyrene grains. The mixing of graphite flakes into the polystyrene mould further reduces the lambda value, since graphite parts significantly reflect the radiant part of the thermal energy. In this study, laboratory tests carried out on graphite insulation materials are presented. Firstly, thermal conductivity results are described, and then sorption kinetic curves at high moisture content levels are shown. The moisture up-taking behaviour of the materials was investigated with a climatic chamber where the relative humidity was 90% at 293 K temperature. Finally, calorific values of the samples are presented after combusting in a bomb calorimeter.


Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (15) ◽  
pp. 1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adnan Hossain ◽  
Monjur Mourshed

This study is aimed at assessing the impact of the insulation refurbishment of the English housing stock on the embodied energy needed for the various refurbishment scenarios and their corresponding operational energy use reductions. An embodied energy model comprising 22 million homes has been constructed, enabling the assessment and comparison of operational and embodied energy use due to the insulation refurbishment of various applicable building elements. Results indicate that mineral wool, sheep wool and expanded polystyrene (EPS) are the optimum insulation materials for cavity walls, cold pitch roofs and warm pitched roofs, respectively.


2013 ◽  
Vol 772 ◽  
pp. 178-181
Author(s):  
Yong Liang Zhan ◽  
Hai Yang Chen ◽  
Xing Hua Hou ◽  
Fei He

Non-shrinking composite silicate insulation material has advantages of low drying shrinkage, density, thermal conductivity and good thermal insulation which withstands high temperature and militates in favor of specially shaped structural member construction, etc. This article describes raw materials and the production process of the above material, discusses thermal insulation characteristics, technical performance and the features of use and particularizes the application effect in the project.


2014 ◽  
Vol 587-589 ◽  
pp. 409-412
Author(s):  
Li Xin Sun ◽  
Hong Dong ◽  
Jing Fen Yang

Thermal conductivity of expanded polystyrene foam board (EPS) is affected by the environment when used as insulation material in the building. In order to simulate the impact on EPS in the building and test the thermal conductivity of EPS in different conditions, we conducted a simulation study, including temperature and humidity simulation tests, freeze-thaw tests and mechanical tests. This study of EPS in different environmental conditions established a good foundation for further research on environment dependence of thermal conductivity in national codes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 564 ◽  
pp. 315-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maatouk Khoukhi ◽  
Mahmoud Tahat

The impact of the thermal conductivity (k-value) change of polystyrene insulation material in building envelope due to changes in temperature on the thermal and energy performance of a typical residential building under hot climate is investigated. Indeed, the thermal and energy performance of buildings depends on the thermal characteristics of the building envelope, and particularly on the thermal resistance of the insulation material used. The thermal insulation material which is determined by its thermal conductivity, which describes the ability of heat to flow cross the material in presence of a gradient of temperature, is the main key to assess the performance of the thermal insulation material. When performing the energy analysis or calculating the cooling load for buildings, we use published values of thermal conductivity of insulation materials, which are normally evaluated at 24°C according to the ASTM standards. In reality, thermal insulation in building is exposed to significant and continuous temperature variations, due essentially to the change of outdoor air temperature and solar radiation. Many types of insulation materials are produced and used in Oman, but not enough information is available to evaluate their performance under the prevailing climatic condition. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the temperature and thermal conductivity of various densities of polystyrene, which is widely used as building insulation material in Oman. Moreover, the impact of thermal conductivity variation with temperature on the envelope-induced cooling load for a simple building model is discussed. This work will serve as a platform to investigate the effect of the operating temperature on thermal conductivity of other building material insulations, and leads to more accurate assessment of the thermal and energy performance of buildings in Oman.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-91
Author(s):  
A. V Bolotin ◽  
S. M Sergeev ◽  
A. A Lunegova ◽  
E. A Kochetkova

Modern technologies are not standing still, and scientists are trying not only to invent new building materials, but also to find non-standard use of various raw materials that were previously considered unsuitable for use. Innovative technologies are actively used for modern construction of buildings, in particular, some types of new materials are used in the construction of various facilities. This is especially true in areas where it is not possible to import or use ordinary building materials for various reasons. Often, when designing a building, developers are wondering whether it is worth making the house warm during construction, and which insulation for the walls of the house is better to choose. This article addresses the question of which insulation for walls is most suitable for construction. The most common are mineral insulation, which are represented on the market today in the form of basalt slabs, fiberglass, etc. They have such advantages as low thermal conductivity, good thermal insulation and vapor permeability. The article presents a table with comparative performance characteristics of a mineral wool stone slab and a fiberglass slab. Stone or basalt wool has several advantages. It is able to withstand significant temperatures and temperature changes, the mats are easy to transport, convenient to install. In our opinion, a serious alternative to basalt in the production of thermal insulation materials is volcanic ash. One of the main features of volcanic ash are its building qualities, such as good thermal insulation and an environmentally friendly composition. Since here we are considering the possibility of producing insulation materials based on volcanic ash, we performed a thermal calculation of the enclosing structures. Also in the tables are the costs of transportation of volcanic ash from the field to the point of the proposed production of insulating material. Volcanic ash can be widely used in countries with high volcanic activity as an inexpensive raw material for the manufacture of building materials. It does not require additional processing and has a number of useful properties.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (17) ◽  
pp. 5223
Author(s):  
Oleksandra Hotra ◽  
Svitlana Kovtun ◽  
Oleg Dekusha ◽  
Żaklin Grądz

This article discusses an express control method that allows in situ measurements of the thermal conductivity of insulation materials. Three samples of the most common thermal insulation materials, such as polyurethane, extruded polystyrene, and expanded polystyrene, were studied. Additionally, optical and organic glasses were investigated as materials with a stable value of thermal conductivity. For the measurement of thermal conductivity, the express control device, which implements the differential method of local heat influence, was used. The case studies were focused on the reduction of fluctuations of the measured signals caused by different influencing factors using wavelet transform. The application of wavelet transform for data processing decreased the thermal conductivity measurement’s relative error for organic glass SOL and optical glasses TF-1 and LK-5. The application of wavelet transform thermal conductivity measurement data for polyurethane, extruded polystyrene, and expanded polystyrene allowed to reduce twice the duration of express control while maintaining the same level of measurement error. The results of the investigation could be used to increase the accuracy in express control of the thermal conductivity of insulation materials by improving the data processing. This approach could be implemented in software and does not require a change in the design of the measuring equipment or the use of additional tools.


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